Mountaineers sue to block new housing at Yosemite

Larry D. Hatfield, OF THE EXAMINER STAFF

Published 4:00 am, Thursday, May 28, 1998

Saying it would produce irreparable historical and cultural damage, a coalition of mountaineers and environmentalists has sued to block the National Park Service from constructing employee and visitor housing at Yosemite National Park's fabled Camp 4.

The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, demands that a new environmental impact report be prepared before the park service proceeds on expansion of Yosemite Lodge and on new employee housing.

The plaintiffs include such big-name climbers and environmentalists as David Brower, Warren Harding, Royal Robbins, Yvon Chouinard, Tom Frost, Lynn Hill and Galen Rowell.

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They claim the park service and Interior Department were ignoring federal law in plans for a $176 million project repairing extensive damage caused by flooding of the Merced River in the park last year.

Camp 4 has been the meeting area for climbers since before World War II.

The plaintiffs argue the plan for the lodge's expansion and the employee housing violates the park's own general plan to reduce commercial activity in the park and ignores objections from the public.

Yosemite Park spokesman Scott Gediman, however, said the plan was extensively revised last year after some 200 written comments from the public were received. "We made 11 major revisions specifically addressing the comments from the general public and climbing community," he said.

"We are moving the public (Yosemite Lodge) accommodations out of the flood plain and seeking to reduce the human footprint. Our ultimate goal is to reduce damage to the environment when the river floods again." &lt;